Wireless communications systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication such as voice, packet data, and so on. These systems may be based on code division multiple access (CDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), or other multiple access techniques to allow multiple devices to share a common communications medium. Such systems can conform to standards such as Third-Generation Partnership Project 2 (3gpp2, or “cdma2000”), Third-Generation Partnership (3gpp, or “W-CDMA”), or Long Term Evolution (“LTE” or “LTE-A”).
In such communications systems, it is often useful to estimate the quality of a communications channel, e.g., to obtain estimates of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and/or signal and noise power received over a channel. Such signal and noise power estimates are often computed from received pilots, or signals having known content, transmitted over the communications channel according to pilot patterns defined by a standard.
It would be desirable to provide techniques for estimating the signal and noise power received over a communications channel applicable to arbitrary pilot patterns. It would be further desirable to ensure accurate estimation of such signal and noise power over commonly expected SNR ranges and channel conditions.